daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
It’s almost Christmas, and like most people, we’re so busy getting ready! This year we’re visiting my folks in Southern California. I’m really looking forward to hanging out and having my mom’s home cooking!
Anyways, that is just a quick status update… I haven’t had much time to post here lately! ごめんね！
It’s a little chilly outside, but really nice for a run!
Just wish there was sun.
But here are some leaves.
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The day after Thanksgiving we took the kids camping to a new place for us: Choke Canyon State Park. It’s located between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, about three-hour drive from our house. We really enjoy camping and since we have all the gear it’s easy to go spur-of-the-moment. Going the day after our Thanksgiving feast wasn’t a problem at all. We went basic with the meals, just stopping at the supermarket to fill up our cooler with steaks, breakfast sandwiches, bread and deli meats/cheese. And of course we had to have s’mores!
The campsite was pretty nice, but it’s mostly RV campers and only a couple of people in tents. But it was ok. The only downside was that most of the RV campers left the lights on at their campsites all night. Plus there was also the constant hum of electric appliances. It was kind of fun seeing all the lights strung up at the campsites (I have never camped at an RV area before). I only wish they would have turned off the lights when they went to bed. It would have made the star photos a bit better. But, the bathrooms there were super-clean since I think most of the people at the campground prefer to do their business in their RVs. Just a guess.
Anyways, the camping was fun as usual, with a nice campfire, steaks, and s’mores. I bring my BBQ grill when we go camping, so we have a nice controlled cooking fire, and then we have the campsite fire pit for the larger campfire.
I woke up at about 1:30 AM and decided to take some photos of the night sky. Luckily I remember to bring the tripod on the trip! It was a lot of fun! I wish the kids would have joined me, but I didn’t really want to wake them since they were snug in their warm sleeping bags. I did manage to get a few decent photos and see one shooting star before retiring back to the tent at 2:30.
The next morning after breakfast, we headed down to the lake and did a little fishing. We didn’t catch anything or even get a nibble, but we were able to see a huge alligator sunning himself on the bank. It was pretty impressive!
The camping trip was just one night, but it was fun and nice to visit a new place. I can’t wait for our next camping trip! Please enjoy the photos below.
Yesterday I ate a ton of pizza at Conan’s with my friend Scott so I was looking forward to a long evening run in the neighborhood. But when I went out, it was too cold! It was about 50ºF and windy.
I told myself that I should at least run the first leg of my normal route and see if I warm up. I ran a couple of miles, but my face was so cold I decided to cut the run short and try again during the day. (Maybe I need some winter running gear?)
Looks like it will be lovely weather for a lunch run today!
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This past “bachelor summer” I bought an inexpensive classical guitar for myself to play. I haven’t really played guitar before (I’ve played keyboard and bass a bit), but Koa has taken a year of lessons and it looked so fun and sounded great. I thought I could have some fun noodling around on the guitar too. And yes, after watching a bunch of YouTube videos and practicing a bit, I could actually play some chords that don’t sound half bad!
I realize that with my current level of commitment I won’t ever excel at guitar, but even at my beginner/hobbyist level there is a lot of value for me in playing my ~5 chords. Look out, here comes a list!
Playing my guitar:
I also like to goof around on my bass guitar which is also fun. The problem is that I need to plug into an amp, and I don’t have a proper bass amp anymore. It just doesn’t sound right going through a tiny practice amp.
But what is neat about playing both guitar and bass is that you can sort of piece things together between the two instruments, and when things click and make sense, it’s a nice thing. It’s kind of obvious since they are essentially the same instrument, but it is still really satisfying to make the connection.
Satisfying enough to bring a huge smile to my face.
